Proposals for the 2022 Social Issues Roundtable

Thank you for your interest in Social Issues Roundtable. Submissions are now closed.

The Public Education and Communication Committee (PECC) invites the membership to submit proposals for the Social Issues Roundtable (SIR) to be held at Neuroscience 2022 in San Diego. Submitters should consider neuroscience topics that have an impact on society, particularly in terms of ethics or social awareness. The Committee seeks to select a topic with broad appeal that touches on a timely social issue. Unless recent developments have occurred, topics appearing in the past three years will be less favorably considered. On the other hand, the principal argument in favor of a topic should not be that it has not been represented for many years. 

• 2019: Human Fusions: Ethical and Social Issues Raised by Neural-Digital Interfaces
• 2018: Solitary Confinement: Psychological and Neurobiological Insights Into Isolation
• 2017: Engaging Neuroscientists in Dialogue With Religious Communities
• 2016: Concussion: From the Players' Experience to the Future of Research

It is required that you name in your proposal a chair (perhaps yourself) who has already agreed to be responsible for the SIR and a maximum of four speakers who have also agreed to participate. The chair must be a member of SfN. Speakers may be SfN members or nonmembers. The chair’s responsibilities include entering submission requirements for the entire session and making sure that all speakers have returned necessary logistical and programming information to SfN. Please note that during the submission and review process, the proposer (if different than the chair) will be the primary contact. After acceptance into the annual meeting program, the chair becomes the primary contact and is responsible for relaying any and all important information to and from the speakers.

The Society for Neuroscience will provide the SIR chair and four speakers with complimentary registration, round-trip economy class airfare, and two nights’ hotel stay at one of the annual meeting headquarters hotels.

PECC selects the SIR in March, in time to include the final title in the Preliminary Program. This means that it should be well-developed in design, particularly in regard to an agreed upon chair and speakers, in December or January.

Your proposal should be firm before submitting, meaning that the agreement of the chair and speakers has already been obtained. The site will direct you to provide the following (all character limits include spaces):

• Contact information (institutions, emails, addresses) for the chair and speakers
• Title of the overall SIR and the individual presentations
• Short description of the SIR for use in the annual meeting Program and Neuroscience Meeting Planner (500 characters)
• Overall objectives for how the SIR addresses neuroscience topics that have an impact on society, in terms of ethics or public awareness or social change (1500 characters)
• Why the proposal is timely (500 characters)
• The extent to which it could have a broad appeal for the membership (500 characters)
• The diversity of your participants (women, international, underrepresented minorities) (500 characters)
• Other considerations that may make the proposal attractive (500 characters)

Appropriate representation of women, international scientists, and underrepresented minorities is strongly encouraged and will be considered in the selection of the SIR by PECC. PECC retains the right to work with the organizer to modify the composition of the SIR to ensure diversity.